10 Most Frustrating Shrines in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

If I see one more shrine with motion controls...

By
Brendan Graeber

Hyrule is bigger than ever in Breath of the Wild, and over the course of your adventure, you’ll no doubt run into countless shrines hidden all over the map. A lot of these shrines house some clever puzzles, robot guardians to battle, or even fun quests to undertake just to find the shrines. However, with almost as many shrines as there are original Pokemon, there’s going to be a few less than stellar ones. Here’s the 10 most frustrating shrines in Breath of the Wild.

Into the Vortex - Ritaag Zumo Shrine, Akkala

Escort quests are always a handful, and the Into the Vortex shrine quest kicks things up a notch by making your escort a dumb rock ball you need to haul around just to open the place up.

But wait, it gets better: You get to carry this silly orb around a winding stretch of shore that’s filled to the brim with Lizalfos, Moblins, Octoroks, and even Bokoblins on horseback because you don’t have enough to deal with, right? You know what -- forget this, I’m punting this ball into the ocean.

Metal Connections - Wahgo Katta Shrine, Central Hyrule

Maybe I’m crazy, but the Wahgo Katta shrine is more annoying than it looks. You’ve got a monk far out of reach, so you just need to move some metal boxes and platforms to build a bridge. Simple, right? Turns out, physics can be a real jerk. Have fun watching your carefully stacked boxes topple over like a flimsy house of cards because you jerked the Magnesis Rune too hard in one direction. Oh and don’t bet on that final metal platform doing you any favors as you guide it from being unhelpful to crashing down on your head and knocking you back to the bottom.

Greedy Hill - Kayra Mah Shrine, Eldin

Ok I was wrong there’s a worse thing to escort than a ball -- try a piece of rocky meat. At the bottom of a large hill. Guarded by hordes of Moblins. Who are shooting fire arrows. Also there’s falling boulders, and everything is on fire. WHY? No piece of meat is worth this, and it’s made of rock! Why can’t this dumb Goron go get it himself?

Get the jerk his rock meat, and he’ll open a path to the Kayra Mah shrine. You’d think that would be enough, right? You’ve proven yourself, yeah? Nope -- get ready to run up another slope inside the shrine while even more boulders try and fall on you!

Katosa Aug Apparatus - Katosa Aug Shrine, Akkala

The monks who built all these crazy shrines really wanted Link to prove himself as a hero. Power, courage, wisdom -- everything you’ll need if you want to beat Ganon. So why am I playing minigolf in this shrine? Is Link going to face off with Ganon on the putting green to decide the fate of Hyrule? Nevermind the fact that motion controls make trying to hit a ball in a straight line the most impossible task in the world. Just keep the Spirit Orb, Katosa Aug, it’s not even worth it.

Myahm Agana Apparatus - Myahm Agana Shrine, Hateno

Really, more motion controls? I’m not going to be able to save Zelda by tilting a ball through a maze, dude. If that’s Ganon’s plan, he’s got way too much time on his hands. This might have actually been fun if it wasn’t for the ramp at the end where you need to fling the ball into the air -- which usually ends with you violently jerking the platform to the side. You know you’ve made a frustrating shrine puzzle when everyone who tries it just ends up flipping the maze over. This champion doesn’t play by the rules!

Rona Kachta's Blessing - Rona Kachta Shrine, Great Hyrule Forest

The Rona Kachta shrine doesn’t suck -- but getting there does. This deceptively cool looking entrance is straight out of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Luckily for Dr. Jones, he didn’t have to deal with a room full of a dozen Guardians all aiming laser beams straight at his head.

This place is downright terrifying to get through, especially if you stumble across it early on, and haven’t mastered the awesome art of perfect parrying - or, you know - running away really fast and not getting killed in one hit.

The Stolen Heirloom - Lakna Rokee Shrine, Dueling Peaks

OK maybe this isn’t so much about the shrine, as it is the frustrating nature of the people of Kakariko. Ever since you arrive to find Impa you can spot a little shrine ball next to her. Eventually you might stumble across the shrine pedestal up in the hills -- but they won’t give you the ball! They even tell you “the hero will be gifted the blessing of antiquity” but apparently that doesn’t mean you can take it -- no you’re just a regular legendary hero, not the hero of taking artifacts without permission.

What they don’t tell you is once you do enough errands in the town, somebody else steals it! That’s right, all your patience is rewarded by some other chump taking the orb and trying to use it himself, forcing you to tail the guy all the way up into the hills. At least you get to have a cool duel with a ninja at the end.

The Lost Pilgrimage - Daag Chokah Shrine, Great Hyrule Forest

I hope you loved tailing that other guy in Kakariko Village, because The Lost Pilgrimage Shrine quest, wow. This… wonderful, adorable, silly old Korok will have you screaming in frustration as you watch him wander aimlessly around the Lost Woods in search of a Shrine. But don’t you dare help him -- even when he calls out for help -- or it’s back to the start!

This little guy has the attention span of a goldfish. He’ll stop for minutes at a time, then sprint along through the fog, and double back just because -- hope you weren’t trying to follow him! After what seems like an hour -- he finally has the shrine in sight, which of course lures you into coming out to congratulate him, only for you to fail because he didn’t actually reach the shrine yet.

Yahaha! - I’m going to burn this forest down.

Tempered Power - Mirro Shaz Shrine, Great Hyrule Forest

Congratulations Mirro Shaz shrine, you almost single-handedly ruined the stasis rune for me. Also golf. What is it with these monks and driving objects into holes? Was Hyrule originally a giant golf course? We may never know, but I know I broke about 10 sledgehammers trying to whack a ball hard enough to hit it across the gap… and then again to get a treasure chest because I don’t know when to quit.

Fateful Stars - Keo Ruug Shrine, Great Hyrule Forest

The Keo Ruug Shrine wins the award for “Most confusing shrine until you figured it out and told everyone you always knew how it worked”. Ok so maybe you figured it out quickly -- but to a lot of people, seeing a bunch of weird shapes on the wall and a bunch of ball slots everywhere made things pretty frustrating.

It’s actually a good kind of frustrating: Confusion leads to experimentation, throwing balls into different slots, and slowly coming to realize that the shapes on the wall match four columns of slots, and the torches that line the wall actually represent a number! Curse you for making me think!

Those were some pretty aggravating shrines, but let’s face it: The spirit orbs are totally worth it. Let us know which shrines and shrine quests you found annoying (or loved!), and be sure to use our IGN Wiki to clear every last one.